ICES advice 2018

ICES advice on fishing opportunities

ICES advises that when the MSY approach is applied, catches should be no more than 11 778 tonnes in 2019 and no more than 11 150 tonnes in 2020.

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Stock development over time

The spawning-stock biomass (SSB) has increased since 2004 and has been above MSY Btrigger since 2010. Fishing mortality has decreased since 2002 and has been lower than FMSY since 2004. Recruitment is estimated to be stable.

Figure 1 Summary of stock assessment (weights in thousand tonnes and recruitment in millions) of blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. Assumed recruitment values are unshaded.

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Stock and explotation status

ICES assesses that fishing pressure on the stock is below FMSY and spawning stock size is above MSY Btrigger.

Table 1 State of the stock and fishery relative to reference points for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

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Catch scenarios

Table 2 Assumptions made for the interim year and in the forecast. Blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

Variable	Value	Notes
F ages 9–19 (2018)	0.03	Fsq = F2017
Total catch (2018)	3 000	Catch; tonnes
R age 9 (2018–2019)	3 500 000	geometric mean of recruitment 1995–2017
SSB (2018)	101 501	Model output; tonnes
Discards (2018)	0	Discarding is negligible
F ages 9–19 (2019)	0.12	FMSY

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Table 3a Annual catch scenarios for 2019 for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. All weights are in tonnes.
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Table 3b Annual catch scenarios for 2020 with F2019 = FMSY for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. All weights are in tonnes.
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Table 3c Annual catch scenarios for 2020 with F2019 = Fsq = F2017 for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. All weights are in tonnes.
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The advised catch in 2019 is higher than the advice for 2018 because of an increase in biomass. However, between 2019 and 2020 the biomass declines, resulting in a decrease in advised catches.

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Basis of the advice

Table 4 The basis of the advice for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

Advice basis	MSY approach.
Management plan	ICES is not aware of any agreed precautionary management plan for blue ling in this area.

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Quality of the assessment

Figure 2 Historical plots for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

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Issues relevant for the advice

In EU waters, catches lower than the TACs in 2015–2017 are considered to reflect a low level of fishing activity. The capacity of fleets has been decreasing and protection of spawning areas restricts catch opportunities at times where blue ling has a higher catchability.

Although ICES advice applies to all catches from the stock, in both EU and Faroese waters, the EU TAC has been set at the level of ICES advice since 2014. A management plan or a share of fishing opportunities between EU and Faroe Islands should be developed for the entire stock.

Because F in recent years has been much lower than the FMSY, the projections assume that the F in 2018 is equal to Fsq = F2017 for all catch scenarios. Catch advice is provided for two years: 2019 and 2020. As the future F level is unknown, catch scenarios for 2020 were simulated under two options in 2019: F2019 = FMSY and F2019 = Fsq = F2017; these two scenarios are presented in tables 3b and 3c, respectively.

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Reference Points

Table 5 Reference points, values, and their technical basis. Blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.
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Basis of the assessment

Table 6 Basis of the assessment and advice for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

Assessment type	Multi-Year Catch Curves (MYCC), a model fitted to age composition and total catch in order to estimate annual total mortality (Z) (ICES, 2016b).
Input data	International landings 1995–2017; age composition of French landings (2009–2017).
Discards and bycatch	Not included; discarding is considered negligible.
Indicators	None.
Other information	Last benchmarked in 2014 (ICES, 2014).
Working group	Working Group on the Biology and Assessment of Deep-Sea Fisheries Resources (WGDEEP).

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Information from stakeholders

There is no additional information available.

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History of the advice, catch, and management

Table 7 ICES advice and catch for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. All weights are in tonnes.
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History of the catch and landings

Table 8 Official catch distribution by fleet in 2017 for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.

Total_catch	Landings	Discards
2669 t	5% longline fisheries 95% trawl fisheries	Negligible
	2669 t

Table 9 History of commercial catch as estimated by ICES for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b. All weights are in tonnes.
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Table 10 Landings inside and outside the NEAFC Regulatory Area (RA) as estimated by ICES as well as official landings for blue ling in subareas 6–7 and Division 5.b.Weights are in tonnes.
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Sources and references

• ICES. 2014. Report of the Benchmark Workshop on Deep-sea Stocks (WKDEEP), 3–7 February 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• ICES CM 2014/ACOM:44. 247 pp.
• ICES. 2016. Advice basis. In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2016. ICES Advice 2016, Book 1, Section 1.2.
• ICES. 2016b. Report of the Working Group on the Biology and Assessment of Deep-Sea Fisheries Resources (WGDEEP), 20–27 April 2016, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen. ICES CM 2016/ACOM:18. 648 pp.
• ICES. 2018. Report of the Working Group on the Biology and Assessment of Deep-sea Fisheries Resources (WGDEEP), 11–18 April 2018, ICES HQ, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2018/ACOM:14. 624 pp.